Italian Language Feature Films in Leavey Library (DVDs): Titles F-G

Titles F-G

Facing Windows
"Giovanna is a young working-class wife and mother, who has no time for the senile elderly man her husband has rescued from the streets. But as she uncovers the stranger's secrets, it unlocks a freedom within her heart she never expected; a freedom that will lead her to the arm of a neighbor she secretly adores, and to fulfillment her husband and family cannot provide."

Fellini Satyricon
"Fellini recreates the bawdy and lecherous days of Nero's reign in ancient Rome and its lack of concern with human dignity and obsession with perverse sex. The film is also an allegorical satire of the self-indulgence of modern society."

I fidanzati
"A young Milanese couple's relationship is tested when the man accepts a new job in Sicily, causing them to be separated for long periods of time."

The First Beautiful Thing
Returning home to his dying mother, Bruno discovers the sacrifices she made raising him and his sister and recalls her lessons in finding the joy in life."

A Five Star Life
"Irene is a single career woman in her 40s with a job to die for. As the secret critic, she checks into the world's finest hotels to assess their standards. Her elegant, unattached lifestyle affords her the freedom to jet around the globe at a moment's notice to experience a world of luxury, but doesn't leave her with much of a personal life. After a chance meeting, she's compelled to re-examine her choices and charts her own path to happiness, despite the expectations of others."

Francesca
"It's been 15 years since the disappearance of little Francesca, daughter of the renowned poet and playwright, Vittorio Visconti. The community is stalked by a psychopath bent on cleaning the city of 'impure and damned souls.' Moretti and Succo are the detectives in charge of finding the killer of these 'Dantesque' crimes. Francesca has returned, but she is not the same girl they once knew..."

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
"Set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semetic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. Among them were the Finzi-Continis, an aristocratic Jewish family forced for the first time to acknowledge the world beyond its fenced garden."

Garibaldi's Lovers
"Widowed plumber Leo is struggling to deal with the growing pains of his two adolescent children, when his life intersects with penniless artist Diana and her eccentric landlord Amanzio. Through a hilarious series of coincidences, they give each other new hope for their futures, and for the city itself, so emblematic of today's times. Watch a fizzy ride through a magical vision of metropolitan Italy, while at the same time casting a critical eye on modern life in the city."

Il gattopardo = The Leopard
Set in Sicily in the 1800s, this film depicts Prince Salina, a great landowner, who watches the decrease of the aristocracy's power and influence during the 'Il Risorgimento', the unification of Italy under the royal House of Savoy. The upper class tries to ignore the nationalist movements, while the prince's rebellious nephew joins Giuseppe Garibaldi's revolutionaries.

Il Generale della rovere
"Film of intrigue and heroism within the Italian underground during the German occupation of Italy. Emanuele Bardone, a petty con man, fleeces his victims by posing as a colonel. Persuaded by the Germans to impersonate a partisan leader they have killed, he assumes the admirable qualities of the heroic officer and the German plan backfires."

Germany Year Zero
"The concluding chapter of Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy is the most devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin seen through the eyes of a 12-year old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with his sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher."

Gianni e le donne
"A middle-aged retiree has become invisible to all the women of Rome, regardless of age or relation. He contends with a demanding mother; a patronizing wife; a slacker daughter; and a wild party-girl neighbor who uses him, as a dog walker. Watching his codger friends snare beautiful young girlfriends on the sun-kissed cobblestones of Trastevere, Giovanni tries his polite, utterly gracious best to generate some kind of extracurricular love life, with both hilarious and poignant results."

Gomorra = Gomorrah
"Power, money and blood: these are the values that the residents of the province of Naples and Caserta confront every day. They have practically no choice, and are forced to obey the rules of the 'system,' the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a 'normal' life. Five stories are woven together in this violent scenario, set in a cruel world, and one that is deeply rooted in reality."

Good Morning, Night
"A young woman, Chiara, moves into a new apartment with her husband. She conceals her true identity as a member of the Red Brigades, Italyś terrorist underground, which is currently planning to kidnap the Prime Minister."

La grande bellezza = The Great Beauty
"For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and elite social circles. But on his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep unexpectedly finds himself taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries."

Guilia non esce la sera: Guilia Doesn't Date at Night
"Giulia teaches swimming at a pool. One of her pupils is the young daughter of Guido, a successful and married writer grappling with feelings of futility about his profession. When they meet at the pool, Guido gets intrigued by this charming woman who keeps initially a certain distance, because Giulia hides a secret and a mysterious past. Their brief affair based on abdication, fragility, and selfishness will lead Giulia to an extreme decision."